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18/01/2011 - Blogger.Iconshock

Icon sets, 150+ best designs

Icons have definitely become one of the most useful resources to implement in web design thanks to their lightweight and high communication level. Ranging from truly minimal creations to realistic and big designs that can barely be considered icons as they’re more a piece of art themselves, icons offer many different styles to satisfy all the people’s needs. On this countdown we’ve gathered the greatest icon sets that were released throughout these past twelve months (some sets were released before that period but we just could not leave them out of this list) with the only purpose of supply you a high shot of inspiration that will help you understand the true meaning of icons as powerful communication tools that should never miss in any good web design.

12/05/2010 - Blogger.Iconshock

100 free web elements sets

To be successful, every web and app designer has to communicate ideas to clients in a clear and effective manner. You can’t have clients imagine your ideas, the client has to SEE them. Web site mock ups are the perfect way to pass on your ideas so they can be approved or modified easily and efficiently. Here we have listed the best Graphic user Interface elements in the web. (GUI) From icons, to buttons, menus or scrolls, you will find everything you need to build your fancy mockup. In the case of icons, there are some of such high quality, that including these in your final designs is a must. Your blog will look a million bucks with these fantastic freebies. So carry on and skim through these wonderful resources created by our community’s finest designers.

Icons

1. Bitcons by P.J. Onori

bitcon-iconshock-icons-free

Massive set of 120 icons in 16×16, 32×32 & 64×64 pixels in 10 different colors.

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29/04/2010 - Blogger.Iconshock

Photoshop Tutorial: padlock icon

Buckle up your seatbelts, because this is going to be a long and fun ride. We are going to show to you how to create a high quality professional padlock icon, ideal for applications. We will be using Adobe Photoshop, making extensive use of paths and layer styles. So let’s begin!

Final Padlock

1. Gather references.

This point is not mandatory in all cases, but it’ can be a good starting point if your tight on a deadline and out of ideas, or just want to check if your revolutionary concept is already taken. gathering references is a good way to nurture your mind with different approaches and styles, so you can build a ground to invent your own.

padlock-references

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16/04/2010 - Blogger.Iconshock

50 things you can and cant do with your new ipad

The world has been talking about this so called “magical” device for quite some time now. The rumors that have been circulating for almost ten years came to their climax when the very first images leaked into the net almost a year ago. Bloggers, journalists, developers and geeks couldn’t stop fantasizing and speculating over this quasi sci-fi gadget… no other electronic consumer product has encouraged such a devoted following and cult like mysticism. Today, it’s a reality. Love them or hate them, one thing we have to grant Apple, they sure know how to build up expectation.

09/04/2010 - Blogger.Iconshock

Photoshop Tutorial: Realistic, High quality printer icon

In this long tut we will make a lot of use of vector masks and layer styles in Photoshop in order to create a slick looking ink printer reminiscent of some Canon and HP ink printers. So let’s begin!

Printer-icon

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31/03/2010 - Blogger.Iconshock

Useful Icon design lessons and tips

Each time we see a computer, a washing machine, a cell phone, or whatever artifact that needs a system for us to interact with, we see icons. Icons are a predominant and essential element in any user interface, and as such, their design must take care and proper knowledge. Icon design is a compromise between clarity, aesthetics, and usability. We are going to list for you, an essential guide for any designer who wants to crash into this crazy and fantastic industry.

DO think of icons as a part of a system

Icons are not conceived as individual works. No matter how well made, the validity of an icon is not in its individual design, but rather in its effectiveness as part of a system. When you approach Icon design, you must take into account where they are going to be placed. They must be clear and harmonious within the general design, feel and purpose of whatever project they are going to be put in, be it a website, a word processing application, or a Mp3 player.

Design as a whole-Iconshock-icons

Grungy icons will not be very effective inside an “aqua” style interface, and maybe chrome sharp symbols ala “Metallica” logo won’t fit very well in your cute baby product website.

16/03/2010 - Blogger.Iconshock

How to use icons to enhance your designs

It’s incredible how icons, these tiny, sometimes elusive cute illustrations can do so much for your work. Icon creation has become a giant industry because of the many, many advantages they can bring to any design. They add visual cues to your headings, work as buttons, separate your website sections, and overall give polish and professionalism to your web or application.

Iconshock Icons

21/02/2010 - Blogger.Iconshock

Political characters vol 2

If you thought our first volume had controversial characters, you’ve haven’t seen nothing yet! These are double the nasty, double the fun!

This set includes Russia’s very own Vladimir Putin, French president slash celebrity Nicolas Sarkozy, Uruguay’s face of new hope José “pepe” Mujica, Tourism entrepreneurs Fidel and Raul Castro, Afghanistan’s puppet- sorry president Hamid Karzai, famous ladies lecturer Mu’ ammar al Gadhafi, Israeli president and Nobel prize winner Shimon Peres, and China’s iron leader and Google’s best friend Hu Jintao. Icons come in ICO, PNG and ICNS. Btw, I’m only joking. These are very respectable leaders, and they all deserve a place in heaven beside Ginger Rogers and mother Teresa of Calcutta.

political-characters-vol-2

18/02/2010 - Blogger.Iconshock

Iconshock icon sets: original film director icons vol 1

We at Iconshock are big film buffs. If you’d ask us if we had any common love besides Icons, I’d say its film. And that’s way we wanted to pay homage to the most successful and influential filmmakers of all time. This is our first installment, with six of the most talented and box office grossing directors of all time. The set comes in ICO, ICNS and PNG formats, and includes, George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, Spike Lee, Alfred Hitchcock, Tim Burton, and James Cameron. Which one is you’re favorite?

iconshock-icon-sets-original-film-director-icons-vol-1

13/02/2010 - Blogger.Iconshock

The ultimate collection of free movie icon sets

We are very proud we have assembled here a list with the most extraordinary icons you can find on the net. We have only chosen the best of the best. From The Exorcist to The Polar Express, you will find the most rare, amazing and useful movie themed icons in the entire web. Look no further. As the Oscars come near, this is the best way to fuel our expectations. Enjoy!

1. Cinema Sigma Style
Iconshock

Cinema_icons_iconshock

This is truly a one of a kind icon set, because each icon comes with 17 add-ons, each one made in the beautiful Iconshock trademark style “sigma”

2. The Addams Family
Silvia Selvi

The Addams Familiy-icons-iconshock

Ta ra ra ran! Ta ra ra ran! This was my favorite tv show as a child. And I have to confess I had a thing for Morticia. Genius icon set by this very talented artist form Italy.

3. Kung Fu Panda
Mhmood Zaidan

Kung-Fu-Panda-icons-iconshock

This set just has one icon, but it’s full of detail and identical to the movie character. It could easily be an official icon from the Dreamworks marketing campaign. Excellent.

4. Transformers
Pf Yuan

Transformers-icons-iconshock

I think both transformer movies were really, really bad, but these icons are the exact opposite! A shame only Optimus Prime is featured.

5. The Bourne Ultimatum
Nic Works

Bourne-ultimatum-icons-iconshock

Each Icon is a perfect key feature of the movie. Didn’t expect to find an icon set of this movie. I’m not a fan of the series I must say, but I do like this set very much.

6. Kill Bill
David Lanham

Kill-bill-icons-iconshock

Perfect! This is one of the best Icon Sets ever! The complete set features many more icons besides these, including the Kaboom cereal! Check the detail at the smaller sizes. This is just genius.

10/02/2010 - Blogger.Iconshock

Vector vs Bitmap for dummies

Oh no! Not another vector vs bitmap article! Well… Yes. I’m afraid to tell you that I’ve come from a land far, far away, just to add to Google yet another post about the differences between vector type images and Bitmaps. So, why should you, dear visitor, continue reading these lines any further? What will make this article different from the rest? Well, for starters, I’m going to insert at the end of this post a hidden URL with hundreds of videos of my steamy, vicious, dirty, prolific sex life, and besides that, this article would be loaded with information so exclusive, so intelligent, so enlightening, that it will increase your credit card limit, save the Amazon rainforest and improve your digestion. How about that?

Hmmm. My nose has grown so much its pushing the monitor away.

Let’s get things straight. I’m still in love with a girl that left me almost two years ago, so my sex life is pretty much restricted to my daily dosage of lyrics from AC-DC and The Rolling Stones… the only way to improve your credit card limit is saving as much as you can… and not even god himself can save the Amazon rainforest. Oh, and I really don’t care about your digestion.

So with all things cleared out, I will now proceed to write about vector and bitmap images. Of course you are free to go on and make your own steamy videos instead of reading this.

Bitmap image enlarged to see the individual pixels

09/02/2010 - Blogger.Iconshock

Best 100 free social media and web 2.0 icon sets

I want to show you the most original and beautiful icons web 2.0 style ready for download. Use them wisely dear readers, and please show your love for their talented creators writing on their blogs and telling them how cool their art is.

0. Iconshock Social Icon Set

Iconshock

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05/02/2010 - Blogger.Iconshock

Best 50 undercover icon sets

Iconshock wanted to give the maximum gift any icon lover can have. We wanted to give to our readers, the ultimate, definitive, mega, super, hyper, ultra, mega, … you get the point…

Here it is ladies and gentlemen. No more B.S. The best Icons of 2009. There are some icons of 2008, but who cares if they’re good? Enjoy.

1. Iconshock Folders
Iconshock

Iconshock-folders-best-icons

The concept behind the design of these is very original; you have a pretty good idea of the contents of each folder without any extra graphics outside the actual envelope. One of the best folder icons out there.

2. Lovely Website Pack 2
Lazy Crazy

Lovelywebsite_2-best-icons

These icons didn’t go for the easy way and chose the difficult top view, that at the end is what makes them unique.

3. Tools
Dave Mottram

Tools-best-icons

Clean and clear as all Icons should be.

4. Fat
Harwenzhang

fat-hardware--best-icons

The obesity concept is taken way to the edge without sacrificing the identity of the elements. A shame there are so few icons on this set.

01/02/2010 - Blogger.Iconshock

100 most creative folder icon sets

Personally, I think folder icons are the most useful of all the icon sets you can think of. Designing a good folder set requires special taste and inventivity, since they are so embedded in your operating system, and so continuously clicked, that a poor design can be obtrusive and disfigure your computer entirely. Contrary to the movie themed icon list I made last week, were the selection was difficult due to scarce sources, finding folder icons was like shooting fish in a barrel. (not that I ever shot a fish. Nor a barrel. In fact I haven’t shot anything in my life outside Halo)

The difficult part was to debug the humongous quantity of low fi stuff. I think I saw almost 500 folder icon sets for three straight days to get down to a hundred, and if I didn’t have a deadline, I would have probably continued this list to 200. I am really proud of this selection, being my longest top list so far, and really expect you readers out there to dig your icon hungry fangs in each set.

Rejoice, this is the longest list of this particular kind of icon sets on the whole web till date. (hope Smashing magazine isn’t reading)

So, Without further ado… Enjoy!

1. Rise for Windows

Vincent Garnier

Click on the Image to download

2. Christmas Folder

Vincent Garnier

Click on the Image to download

3. Avalon

Wil Nichols

Click on the Image to download

4. H2O

Iconblock

Click on the Image to download

5. Eclipse

Iconblock

Click on the Image to download

6. Zero

Iconblock

Click on the Image to download

7. Somatic Rebirth

The Iconfactory

Click on the Image to download

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01/02/2010 - Blogger.Iconshock

Iconshock Interview: Tutorial 9 wunderkind David Leggett

Tutorial 9 is one of the most successful examples of web entrepreneurship in the design industry. It has grown in less than two years to become THE place to go for designers and artists to find free tutorials and resources, This marvelous site is just one of the many profitable projects run by under 21, self taught blogger from Atlanta David Leggett. Many of us couldn’t even tie our shoelaces properly at 21, but this guy already has one of the most respected design forums in the web, and has been featured in tons of interviews and “best of” lists. He became interested in computers at age 10, when his parent gave him Adobe Pagemill as a gift. (I had a Chewbacca at 10. No wonder.) Who would have thought that was the beginning of one of the most rocket rising, fast paced careers in blogging history. Well, I now “blogging history” is less than 10 years old, but, you get the point.

David_Leggett

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